US Military Cracks Down On Troop Masturbation In Afghanistan

An image making the rounds on Facebook gave us a chuckle — it's a notice posted in a port-a-potty on Camp Leatherneck in Helmand province, Afghanistan, and it sends a clear message to the troops deployed there:

The notice threatens anyone in violation of this silly rule with legal action, specifically under Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Affectionaly dubbed the "catch-all" by Marines, Article 92 allows the military to prosecute its troops for "failure to obey an order or regulation."

The notice, which hilariously refers to a port-a-potty as a "masturbation facility," claims that there have been several cases of illness in the region due to exposure to bodily fluids.

That sounded a little scientifically fishy to me, so I reached out to the Navy Corpsman who was my medic when I was deployed to Helmand province in 2011. He called malarkey.

"Unless they're getting semen in an open wound, there's no way," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Eric Dodson, a Corpsman with 2nd Marine Division in Camp Lejeune, N.C. "There's no transdermal infection passable through semen, at least to my knowledge."